Essay I wrote over noodling & flathead catfish

Please dont take any of this the wrong way, just needed something to write an essay about.

Kyle Snider
Jan 4, 2006
1st Hour
Place Size Limits On Noodling

Not for the faint of heart, noodling is a sport which many participate in. Noodling is done
by reaching ones hand into a catfishs hideout and wrestling out the fish. The most sought after
catfish is the Flathead Catfish. Flathead can grow to over one hundred pounds. They spawn in the
spring and early summer. Noodling is done during the spawn when fish move into holes to build
and protect nest. Due to noodling, many nest are left unguarded and many big fish are harvested
for the table. In order to have an adequate amount of big fish around we need to leave some. Size
limits should be set for noodling to increase the amount of big fish.
Flathead can grow to phenomenal sizes, therefore needing much to eat. It takes ten
pounds of fresh fish for a flathead to gain one pound of body weight. A flatheads diet consist
almost entirely of live food. By having several flathead, populations of baitfish and gamefish
are kept in balance. If populations were to get out of control many fish would die and growth
would be stunted due to competition for food and space. Dramatic population shifts would throw
off the entire food change and ecosystem in the area.
Flathead catfish have a slower reproductive rate than most other freshwater fish species.
They take four to six years to mature and become fertile. Females lay only around 1,000 eggs per
pound of body weight, where as other catfish produce about 3,000-4,000 eggs per pound of body
weight. Due to the lower egg production it helps a lot to have the larger fish in the water since
produce a lot of eggs. Males and females both guard the nest and fan the silt off the eggs until
they hatch. When protecting the nest they will attack anything that gets near it, including a
noodlers hand. By taking bigger fish there would be fewer mature fish to breed. Along with
having a low reproductive rate, it may take a flathead 10-15 years to reach 60 pounds.
The opportunity for others to catch a big fish is very important. The feeling of catching a
big fish is very exciting. Big flathead fight like a heavyweight and pull like a bulldozer. I believe
everyone should be able to enjoy catching a large fish. The memories last a lifetime and the
stories can be told through the generations. I constantly hear stories of my father, uncles,
grandparents and even great-grandparents catching big flathead catfish. I would like to pass the
same stories and even some of my own down to my children, their children, and so on. They
should also have the opportunity to pull in big fish for the hard work they may put into finding
one.
Placing size limits on noodling would increase the amount of large fish. By practicing
catch and release of flatheads over 50 pounds, numbers of baitfish and gamefish would be kept
under control, catfish would have the chance to spawn and produce more offspring, and many
others would get the chance to enjoy catching large fish. Catfishing means a lot to me and many
other people I know, it would be a shame to see it lose popularity over something that could be
easily fixed.

Great read Kyle. I agree with your post. I love noodling and I do some here in central Oklahoma when the weather gets right. Most of the guys I know in noodling actually practice catch and release with the big ones. I know of one female we caught two years in a row. She was identifiable by being blind on the left side and had a big scar across her tail. She weighs about 45 pounds. The sport is starting to get more popular now and I don't think people practice catch and release as much. I don't blame them, it is quite a feat to grab and wrestle a large flathead out of it's hole. Then you gotta have pictures and show them off. We have tournaments also now. I don't really like the tournament deal but I hope they release them unharmed.

Little advice, if you do find a good flathead hole it will always be a good hole, unless something changes to the structure. They come back year after year.

Some of you might remember my experience noodling last year and catching my first fish. It was around June 7th more or less. I go to a church camp with my family every year about that same date. The pedernales river(in Texas) runs not more than 100 feet form our camp. Every year for 3 years I had been trying to noodle a fish. This last year I found about a 4-5 pound channel cat in a hole. This is the first fish I actually found and had an oppertunity to catch. I pulled it out, took some pictures and released it. Texas is one of the states where noodling is illegal, but I felt that my intentions were for fun and to say I did it, not for the purpose of removing the fish. It was about the most exciting thing to pull a fish out with your bare hands. Noodling to me should be about fun not harvesting fish. Too many big fish get removed from noodling, just a personal opinion, so where its legal I respect the people who follow the law. At work right now or id post the picture, its on the old boc site.